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Advisory: DoT, Govt of India would conduct Cell Broadcast testing with NDMA. You may receive test alerts on mobile with sound/vibration. These alerts are part of testing process, do not indicate an actual emergency and do not require any action at your end.

Do any native speakers use would for the real future possibility? What would be the auxiliary verb a native speaker would use in the place of the above would?

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    Hi. The use of "would" doesn't seem right to me at all in this context. I think it should probably be "will be conducting" or "is conducting". It could just be an error. Also, there's a missing "the" before "testing process" - something that no native speaker would do.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 9:10
  • @TimR No difference. I used the real to contrast with imagined future possibility (second conditional).
    – South Indian ɪŋɡlɪʃɪfaɪd
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 10:54
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    The text is badly written. The natural word for the context is may, which is what's used in the very next sentence anyway. Perhaps some misguided non-Anglophone copy writer thought it was stylistically weak to repeat the same verb. Just ignore the mistake and move on.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 12:06
  • I'm not familiar with the grammar of Indian English, but the word "would" might have the function of definite future plan, perhaps in a formal tone.
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 20:45

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"Would" in that sentence is definitely conditional, but this seems not to be what is intended from the context. We would use "will" as a straight replacement but "is conducting" might be more likely.

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  • My initial take on that message was that they were talking about the possibility of conducting the test. Yes, It is equally possible they are sure that they will conduct the test, but the alerts to my phone are just a possibility, and hence, may in the next sentence.
    – South Indian ɪŋɡlɪʃɪfaɪd
    Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 3:04

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